Sleeve tattoos, once the marker for the asian Yakuza crime family, are now very popular forms of tattoo to be seen on just about anyone who wants to have one.
The sleeve tattoo usually goes from about the shoulder down to wrist level, generally the length of a long sleeve shirt, which is where the name comes from. Within a sleeve tattoo, many different designs can be placed, adding to the value of one of these tattoos, especially for a person who has multiple designs in mind for a tattoo. If there are three or four or five different images or designs you would like to have on your body, you can have an artist find a way to incorporate all of them into the same sleeve on the same arm, making them all look like one unified wonderful piece of art.
Detail within the sleeve is important to consider at times, depending on the number of pieces involved with the sleeve. The artwork can have hundreds of different parts to it that will only be discernable if the detail level is of the greatest quality. Likewise, a sleeve that has only a few different parts or designs to it can get away without too much detail in order for those few parts to stand out. Some have even taken to making sleeves with all black, called blackwork, making the lighter areas of the skin between the black ink help the tattoo to stand out even better, without putting too much detail into the tattoo itself.
Due to the area being covered by a sleeve tattoo, of course it’s going to get rather expensive and take a lot of time, again depending on the level of detail. If your tolerance for pain isn’t great, chances are you might want to decide on something other than a sleeve if it is your first or near your first tattoo. Sleeves can get painful, especially on the tender underarm side of the upper bicep. Still, they can be worth it especially if a great artist is hired to take care of the inking. There are quite a few nice sleeve designs out there but there are also quite a few bad ones. It is important to research your artist before deciding since getting a sleeve done will most likely take some serious trust from your artist. Even using the new inks that make it easier to remove a tattoo will not help if you get a sleeve done. So much ink goes into a sleeve tattoo that even the easiest of inks will take time to have a laser remove them, along with more than one appointment and quite a few dollars. So, if you’re getting a sleeve done, make sure you think long and hard about it. Or don’t, and let the rest of us learn from your mistakes!
